As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, we believe in always trying to become better and be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

For the last 15 months, our Stake has been part of the pilot group in testing the new Children and Youth program for the Church. It has been such a rewarding experience. Through the experience we have learned a few things. One thing that I feel was crucial to succeeding, was being able to see our goals we had set daily. We tried writing them on a piece of paper and having it somewhere it could be easily seen, but it didn’t work as well as we had hoped. We also tried putting our goals on sticky notes, but the sticky notes would come unstuck and fall where they could not be seen. We tried having individual little white boards, but the littlest ones would something “accidentally” erase others goals. So, I came up with this magnetic board that could easily be hung on a wall or placed on a desk or shelf and it has been AMAZING! We have done so much better at working on our goals and succeeding more when we could see them daily. (Yes, I did say we . . . my husband and I also have our own boards and set goals we want to work on. Shouldn’t everyone always be working toward becoming their best self, not just children and youth?!?)

Supplies

Step 1: Cut Wood & Metal

I cut all of my wood, except the outer frame, out of 1/4” thick MDF board. The MDF boards can be located next to the underlayment boards at Home Depot.

Note: For the outer frame, I used a table saw to cut the 1″ x 2″ in half lengthwise. This ended up giving me a long board that was now about 3/4″ square in height and width.

Cuts

  • Main Wood Piece: 9″ x 9″
  • Inner Wood Frame:
    • 2– 1/2″ x 8″
    • 2– 1/2″ x 9″
  • Outer Wood Frame:
    • 2– 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 9″
    • 2– 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 10-1/2″
  • Main Metal Piece: 8-3/4″ x 8-3/4″

 

 

Step 2: Attach Metal

Now for the metal sheet. You can buy metal sheets at any craft store, but they are a little pricey to me and the sizes are very limited. So, I go to my local hardware store and purchase some galvanized sheet metal. Galvanized sheet metal is very inexpensive and comes in many different sizes. I usually buy a large sheet so that I can use it for several projects.Magnetic Chore Charts

Once cut, I attach the sheet metal (and weigh it down with cans) just as I did here, in my Magnetic Chore Charts.

 Notice that the metal will not come perfectly to the edges because you will be covering the edges with the inner frame.

 

Step 3: Attach Inner Frame

Before attaching the inner frame, I painted the inside, of the inner frame pieces, with black paint.

Attach the inner frame with a hot glue gun.

Once the inner frame is fully attached, I painted the top of the inner frame with black paint.

 

Step 4: Attach Outer Frame

I also attached the outer frame with a hot glue gun. It seemed to work really well. I’ve never attached a frame to a board with a hot glue gun before, but was in a little bit of hurry that day and thought it was worth a try.

Step 5: Cut Vinyl & Apply

Download the zip file below, which includes the SVG & PDF files.  Note: My vinyl was cut 7.75″ x 7.75″


Now just apply the vinyl to your board. Check out my vinyl application method.

You will notice that I don’t have the Luke reference on our boards. The reference was too small for my machine to cut it accurately enough for my liking.

 

Step 6: Customize

For Family Home Evening, we did a night of customizing our boards. I told everyone to paint their outer frame a color that they love, but of course my “artist” demanded to paint as many colors as he could. 🙂

NOTE: Before painting, I put painters tape on the inner frame/board. So little ones didn’t need to try having a steady hand.

Once the paint was dry, we did a thin coat of mod podge over the inner and outer frames to seal the paint.

Step 8: Add Goals

Now take some paper and cut into rectangles that will fit inside each area. Our papers are 2″ x 3″. After each child or youth (or even parent) writes their goals they can use one of these cute magnets that I created here.

Now your child or youth (or even adults) will be able to see their goals they are working on, on a daily basis. Which in my opinion, is key to achieving what you are working toward.

Now I love cute little magnets, almost as much as I love cute little tags. So, I knew that if I made a magnetic board I needed to make magnets to match. Check out my free printable magnet post tomorrow . . .